Chili is more than just a menu item at Tip Top lounge — it is a ritual.

The Ames bar is built around its reputation for early morning tailgate parties that feature what loyal customers coin “the best chili in town.”

“It’s really nuts,” manager Karen Christiansen said. “People get here at 3 in the morning sometimes just to get in line.”

And when the doors open at 6 a.m., Cyclone football fans rush to the counter to place their chili and beer orders.

“I have been here nine years, and it has always been a big deal,” Christiansen said. “It’s the only time we ever have to have bouncers at the door. They get rowdy, but they don’t break chairs or anything. We get a good group of kids.”

Christiansen said she is not sure how long Tip Top’s tailgate tradition has been around, but said it only happens on football game days. “Not basketball or anything else,” she said.

Bob’s Tip Top opened almost 50 years ago as a popular restaurant along the Lincoln Highway. “It was more like a truck stop than anything,” Christiansen said.

The restaurant was later purchased by Jim Overturf, who dropped the Bob from the name and transformed it into a bar.

Tip Top has since become a popular hangout for both college students and Ames residents.

“It has an ever-changing atmosphere,” Christiansen said. “It changes during different parts of the day.”

Tip Top opens every morning at 7 and serves a working class Ames crowd lunch during the noon-hour. Past 5 p.m., the bar turns into more of a college hangout.

“I would say it’s the nostalgia that attracts students,” Christiansen said. “Especially the fraternity and sorority people. They hear their older brothers and sisters talking about it, and so they come and check it out.”

Christiansen describes Tip Top as a “neighborhood bar” with the essential pool table, pinball machine and jukebox.

“It is a good place to sit down and have a good time,” she said.

One of the features of Tip Top is the “wall of fame” that lines the hallway to the restrooms. Christiansen said the “wall” was originally built to cover up some holes that were made when an angry patron punched it.

“There are no qualifications to getting your picture up,” Christiansen said. “But a lot of the photos are of our regulars.”

Tip Top has enough regulars that Christiansen describes the bar as a family. Most of the customers know the bartenders by name, and vice versa.

Christiansen said Tip Top is also known for having the coldest beer in town. “Every once in a while, you may even get a frozen one,” she joked.

Happy Hour at Tip Top includes 25 cents off of drinks and 50 cents off of pitchers and is from 8 to 11 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m every day.

The bar also has a lunch special every Tuesday of whatever Christiansen feels like making.

Hotdogs, beef burgers, ham and cheese sandwiches and popcorn make up Tip Top’s menu, although Christiansen said the bar offers a special pizza delivery discount through Happy Joes.

Customers can order any large for only $10 and have it delivered to the bar any time Happy Joes is open.

Tip Top is located at 201 Lincoln Way.